McAnallen legacy to be kept alive with trust
The trust aims to help reduce deaths resulting from such conditions. The Cormac Trust will not only honour and remember the Tyrone footballer but also attempt to reduce the chances of young people dying from heart conditions such as his.
It will aim to promote and encourage screening to identify and treat heart conditions, provide information and raise awareness on these heart conditions, provide defibrillators for each gaelic club and the main soccer and rugby clubs in Tyrone initially and lobby to raise awareness in Government and health departments on the need for action.
The Croke Park banquet will be attended by the McAnallen family and sporting personalities such as Irish rugby captain Brian O’Driscoll, Irish soccer manager Brian Kerr and Tyrone footballer Peter Canavan.
A second banquet, in the Wellington Park Hotel, Belfast on December 3, will be attended by sporting personalities such as Irish rugby player Jeremy Davidson and Glentoran striker Chris Morgan.
At the age of 24, Cormac McAnallen had collected every honour there was to win at inter-county level. As a teenager he led Tyrone to the 1998 All-Ireland minor crown before captaining his county to successive U21 All-Irelands in 2000 and 2001. In 2001 he was named Young Player of the Year and he also won a Sigerson medal at Queen’s, two National League medals and an Allstar award. He represented his club at Scór and his country in the International Rules Series. In September 2003 he was a key part of Tyrone’s first All-Ireland senior success.
Meanwhile, the GAA is to discuss the issue of player burnout at its National Coaching Conference in The Helix, DCU, on Saturday.
The conference will specifically address the scenario where players who find themselves willing and eligible to play across a number of grades and levels, and in some cases in both hurling and football, are being asked to deal with considerable demands, often without the requisite coordination of suitable training programmes.
“Player burnout is an issue of the utmost importance and one that we are tackling on a number of fronts,” said GAA President Sean Kelly, who will address the conference.
“Specifically, a new player welfare task force has been established with a view to drawing up recommendations that will act as the catalyst for policy change, as will this weekend’s exercise.”
The conference, which follows last year’s inaugural event at DCU, will be addressed by sports psychologist Dr Siobhán McArdle, sports medical physician Dr Noel McCaffrey, Director of High Performance (Ulster) Dr Eugene Young, Kerry football manager Jack O’Connor and outgoing Cork hurling manager Donal O’Grady, on dealing with best practice in terms of the identification and treatment of player burnout.
An associated area is that of dropout, and recent research conducted under the guidance of Dr Niall Moyna, Head of Sport Science and Health at DCU, sheds light on the error of imposing traditional competitive models on young players who, when developing a relationship with a particular sport during their formative years, are particularly susceptible to dropout.
The study looked at the activity patterns and responses of children when playing conditioned mini-games and 15-a-side games.
The study found that when participating in conditioned seven-a-side mini-games the children worked harder (as measured by heart rate), had more touches on the ball and expressed a greater level of enjoyment and perceived competence compared with participation in 15-a-side games.
The results suggest that in terms of physical and technical development, improvements will be greater participating in conditioned games, while greater levels of enjoyment and satisfaction clearly provide a counterpoint to the main reason for dropout among children - not having fun.
The GAA is to introduce a series of conditioned games, known as ‘Go Games’ at the conference.
The games, which have been designed to maximise enjoyment by adopting modified rules in a conditioned games context, are structured to cater for the needs and abilities of those who participate. There are three Go Gaelic and three Go Hurling mini-games known as First Touch, Quick Touch and Smart Touch for Under-8s, Under-10s and Under-12s respectively.
Further information and registration details are available at www.thecormactrust.com.
Contributions to the Cormac Trust can be made to an interim account at First Trust Bank, Omagh; Sort Code: 93-81-30; Account No: 65833406; Account Name: Coiste Chontae Thír Eoghain.
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